Books in the Great Shakespeareans series

The four writers featured in this volume represent different aspects of the modernist response to Shakespeare. James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden and Samuel Beckett were all exceptionally learned and their art takes a delight in difficulty. But the scurrility, irreverence and playfulness they found in Shakespeare are essential features of what they themselves were to do with him. They were particularly drawn to Shakespeare's outcasts, and to the experiences of marginality, estrangement, indigence and craziness. In return they have helped to shape the ways in which we now read Shakespeare himself.

Offers an account of those figures who have had the greatest influence on the interpretation, understanding and cultural reception of Shakespeare, nationally and internationally. This volume assesses the contribution of David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons and Edmund Kean to the afterlife and reception of Shakespeare and his plays.

In this volume, leading scholars assess the contribution of four major U.S. literary figures to the afterlife and reception of Shakespeare and his plays. Focusing on Emerson (in his essays), Melville (in Moby Dick and Pierre), James (in his short stories, prefaces and criticism) and Berryman (in his poetry and editing of Shakespeare), each essay assesses the double impact of Shakespeare on the figure covered and of the figure on the understanding, interpretation and appreciation of Shakespeare.

In this volume, leading scholars assess the contribution of Voltaire, Goethe, Schlegel and Coleridge to the reception of Shakespeare and his plays. Each substantial contribution provides a sketch of its subject's intellectual and professional biography and gives an account of the wider cultural context, before going on to assess the double impact of Shakespeare on the writer and of the writer on subsequent interpretations of Shakespeare.

The four actors whose careers the essays in this volume explore are not only the greatest English actors of their own times but also performers whose brilliance is still invoked by all interested in theatre. Each took a distinct approach to the Shakespeare roles they played and the texts they used: from David Garrick's ability to move other actors as well as the audience to tears, to the noble classicism of John Philip Kemble, from the grand tragic style of Sarah Siddons to the terrifying energy of Edmund Kean. Each changed forever the concept of what Shakespeare's plays might mean in performance.

This volume looks at Marx and Freud, who, though not 'Shakespeareans' in the usual academic or theatrical sense, were both deeply informed by Shakespeare's writings, and have both had enormous influence on the understanding and reception of Shakespeare. The first section of this volume consists of a discussion of Marx's use of Shakespeare by Crystal Bartolovich followed by an essay on Shakespeareans' recent uses of Marx by Jean E. Howard. The volume's second half, written by David Hillman, juxtaposes a discussion of Freud's use of Shakespeare with a meditation on Shakespeare's 'use' of Freud. Each part can be read fruitfully independently of the others, but the sum is greater than the parts, offering an engagement with two of the most influential thinkers in Western modernity and their interchanges with, arguably, the most influential figure of early modernity: Shakespeare.

A comprehensive analysis of the most important Shakespearean critics, editors, actors and directors. It offers a systematic account of those figures who have had the greatest influence on the interpretation, understanding and cultural reception of Shakespeare, both nationally and internationally.

Focuses on Shakespeare's reception by figures in Victorian theatre. This book offers a systematic account of those figures who have had the greatest influence on the interpretation, understanding and cultural reception of Shakespeare, both nationally and internationally.

Focuses on Shakespeare's reception by English romantic period writers. This book assesses the contribution of William Hazlitt, John Keats and Charles Lamb to the afterlife and reception of Shakespeare and his plays.

Great Shakespeareans offers a systematic account of those figures who have had the greatest influence on the interpretation, understanding and cultural reception of Shakespeare, both nationally and internationally.In this volume, leading scholars assess the contribution of Victor-Marie Hugo, François-Victor Hugo, Boris Leonidivich Pasternak, Bertolt Brecht and Aimé Césaire to the afterlife and reception of Shakespeare and his plays. Each substantial contribution assesses the double impact of Shakespeare on the figure covered and of the figure on the understanding, interpretation and appreciation of Shakespeare, provide a sketch of their subject's intellectual and professional biography and an account of the wider cultural context, including comparison with other figures or works within the same field.